welcome let me share with you more tips on how to release tension from your voice how
to start dealing with focal pain and how to start building a healthy and efficient voice
from the ground up let's start
hi i am Katarina speech language pathologist and here on this channel i share practical tips
about using your voice in a healthy way so if this is a topic that interests you
consider subscribing to this channel and hitting that bell notification icon so that
you don't miss any of my future videos last week i published a video in which i shared the first
six tips from the series of 12 days of vocal revival for a strained voice
and as promised here are six more tips to complete the series let's start
today i'm going to show you a quick tip on how to release tension from your tongue pause the video
go and wash your hands because we are going inside your mouth and i just washed my hands so take
your thumb and your pointer and slide these two fingers along the sides of your tongue like this
and go really really slowly um i have to wipe my fingers uh you can repeat this um a few times
whatever feels comfortable for you apply as much pressure as it's comfortable
for you and if you really have tension in your tongue this exercise alone will make a huge
difference in how you feel when you use your tongue when speaking or when using your voice
in today's video i have a question for you when it comes to vocal pain what kind of person are
you what kind of type of person are you are you a no pain no gain type of person or are you pain
no go type of person what do they mean so the first type of person no pain no gain is a person
who thinks that it's okay if your voice hurts when you use it so you may think that it's okay
for your voice to hurt when you speak for a long time or when you talk loudly or when you sing
or when you use it all day long that it's okay for your voice to hurt or maybe you know that
your voice shouldn't be hurting after using it but you still cross the threshold of pain because you
don't know what else to do the second type is pain no go and i would say that this type of person
is absolutely fine when you are dealing with a healthy voice when you don't have any vocal issues
yes when you start feeling pain that's probably the time when you should stop using your voice
change something and only then go back to using your voice however when you are dealing with vocal
strain or tension your brain can interpret this tension as pain very early on so there are people
who start talking and immediately either immediately or in 30 seconds in two minutes in
five minutes in 10 minutes their voice starts hurting and this type of person pain no goal stops
using voice immediately at that point when this when they start feeling either pain or pulling
or or some kind of tension the the problem with this type of person is that you are conditioning
your brain to think no talking is safe talking is dangerous and then you slowly develop a
pain trigger immediately after using your voice so that's also not good right so what is the solution
the solution i would call plan then go and gain and what it means this solution um really entails
understanding of your voice what it means to have a vocal pain what is really happening inside you
uh when you feel vocal pain how pain in your body is triggered and then establishing what kind of
activities and for how long you can do them safely so that would be my solution
that's your pelvis hinder your voice what do i mean by that voice your voice boxes here and
pelvis is down there well your voice is not just this little thing inside your throat any part
of your body including your pelvis can actually greatly affect vocal function and even though
they are quite far from each other so your voice box is right here and your pelvis is down here
they are connected and your pelvis can influence how your voice works
so let's play around with your pelvis while you are sitting i want you to move your pelvis so
what does that mean i want you to tilt your pelvis forward and then tuck it in
again and go from one extreme to another just to explore the range of motion of your pelvis so
you are rocking back and forth while moving your pelvis forward and backward okay now i want you to
start humming or making uh just a sustained sound the most comfortable sound that you can and watch
how your voice is changing when you are moving between these two extremes so like this
and maybe you notice that my my hem is changing and that's because i am changing the position
of my pelvis so the trick is to find the position where your voice feels most free and most resonant
so where does your pelvis need to be for your hum to be really free and resonant find that position
of your pelvis and that's the position that uh affects or or plays along with your vocal function
if you are experiencing vocal strain tension or even pain when speaking and you are ready to
start working towards a free strong and confident voice with me check out the links below this video
today i have five thoughts that may be holding you back from a free voice let's get right
into it thought number one i will never get my old voice back thought number two my voice is
embarrassing thought number three this is it there is no hope for me thought number four i'm the most
severe case and thought number five this exercise this therapy will never work so these are just
examples of thoughts that can be holding you back from truly finding vocal freedom did you notice
something about all of these thoughts they are all negative negative thoughts can actually bring on
more tension in your voice and they can trigger vocal pain because they are danger messages
so what is the solution we can change these negative thoughts to something more positive
or we can even eliminate them completely i know it's challenging but it's possible
because when you start thinking more positively that sense messages of safety to your brain
today i want to talk about mindfulness and what does mindfulness have to do with
voice vocal rehabilitation well i would say a lot first of all what is mindfulness mindfulness is a
practice where we stay in the present moment when we are not thinking about the future or
about the past but we are staying in the present moment and we are fully engaged
with our bodies and our thoughts uh right now in the activity that we are doing right now and
what does it have to do with your voice i actually recommend mindfulness exercise for anyone who
is dealing with a vocal problem but i also recommend it for anyone who just uses their voice
every day to maintain a healthy healthy voice and there are a couple of studies that
also show the benefits of mindfulness exercises on our voice on actually the healing process inside
the vocal fold tissue so yes mindfulness works when you are dealing with vocal issues or it
works at different levels at different areas in our life and now if you are wondering how
do i do a mindfulness exercise i don't like meditating i don't know how to meditate well
mindfulness practice doesn't have to be long it can be as short as 30 seconds or
one minute or two minutes whatever you can do you don't have to do a full-blown meditation for
half an hour or an hour it really can be as short as a couple of minutes and the easiest way
to do it is to focus on your breath and stay really connected to your body and and breath
and notice uh notice what is happening inside your body when you breathe in when you breathe out how
it feels inside your body and when your thoughts uh go somewhere else gently bring them back again
to your breath i feel that's the easiest way to be introduced to the world of mindfulness practice
well my last tip is about vocal support and maybe when you hear the word support the first thing
that comes to your mind is breath support but i feel like the concept of breath support is so
confusing and if you ask 100 different people they will give you 100 different explanations of what
breath support is or where you find it or how to find it so let me introduce you to something
more tangible uh vocal support as a way of engaging the big body muscles
to support the little muscles inside and around your voice box or your layering so engaging big
muscles or redistributing the muscle effort uh to all kinds of muscles inside your body for example
your pecs your lats your your postural muscles along along your uh spine your lower back but also
the muscles of your pelvis of your abdomen of your thighs and even lower so uh engaging muscles uh
in uh all inside and around your body as well as the the neck muscles or muscles
in your head and why would we do that if you engage those muscles you are providing a stable
framework or support for these little muscles to work freely and efficiently so you are basically
uh building uh like a scaffolding for these little muscles to to do what they are supposed to do
and that's a producing sound here's a quick tip how to do it you you can uh actually explore uh
millions of prompts well maybe not millions but a lot a lot of prompts that will tell
you what muscles you are engaging and how you are engaging them so for example here is a simple
simple prompt if you um assume this position uh you can start exploring which body muscles
are working and maybe you notice that your chest opens up your shoulders uh go back a
little bit your postural muscles at the back are definitely working my suboccipital muscles are
working because my head has moved back a little bit and then you start noticing uh your voice how
this engagement of the big muscles is affecting uh your voice and maybe you noticed my voice became
a little bit louder but the most important part when i engage the big body muscles my voice feels
easier to produce and ease of production actually equals freedom and that's all what was your
favorite tip let me know in the comments below if you found this video helpful click the like button
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you